“These changes represent our efforts to streamline the game and hopefully increase overall baseball revenues for our owners from $9 billion in 2014 to at least $12 billion this year,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a candid statement. Recently sworn in Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred has proposed six new rule changes for Major League […]

So far in 2015, the San Francisco Giants are following their 2014 payroll blueprint. Sign low-end, inexpensive marginal players, then cross your fingers and hope something accidentally happens. And why not? Last season, San Francisco squeaked into the postseason as the #10 team out of ten qualifiers, then proceeded to move through three playoff levels […]

The San Francisco Giants are in the midst of a modern day baseball dynasty, winning their third World Series title in five years in 2014. In a thrilling seven-game series with the Kansas City Royals, World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner had an historic effort on the mound to cement himself and his team in the […]

As I wrote in the National League installment of this subject, there are no secret moves or below the radar player pick-ups in Major League Baseball any more. The media swarm is such that if the fifth starter in Double A Flushbucket, Louisiana throws a no-hitter we’re all going to know about it. So while […]

With the signing of former Kansas City Royals outfielder free agent Nori Aoki, the San Francisco Giants have now answered two of their top off-season questions: who will replace Pablo Sandoval at third base and who takes over in left field for Michael Morse? Morse and Sandoval were both offered more money to stay in […]

It seems like just yesterday that the team was piled at the pitcher’s mound in Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City after winning Game 7 to clinch their third World Series in five years, but believe it or not, the San Francisco Giants are just about five weeks away from reporting to Spring Training in Scottsdale, […]

There are no “under the radar” moves made in Major League Baseball any more. A swap of back-up catchers between the Cubs and Blue Jays fifteen or twenty years ago might have gone unnoticed to anyone except rabid Chicago and Toronto fans. Today, let a class A fourth outfielder stub his toe coming into the […]

Question: Do You Believe the Giants Front Office (or Your Lying Eyes) ? This off-season the 2014 World Champion San Francisco Giants missed an amazing number of opportunities to improve their 25 man roster. It makes you wonder why they bothered to attend the annual General Managers meeting in Phoenix last November, or the MLB […]

Welcome to the Empty Funhouse The 2014 postseason should have been a time of bold and dominating moves by the San Francisco Giants ownership group and their front office. An unexpected trip to the playoffs and a World Series win last October should have been the jumping off point for the organization to boldly rebuild […]

The defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants will field a much different team in 2015 compared to 2014, but that doesn’t mean support for the team is any lessened. According to TiqIQ.com, the average price for San Francisco Giants home game tickets is $100 for 2015. Despite the loss of beloved Pablo Sandoval, Giants […]

The San Francisco Giants front office has its hands full this off-season with more vacancies than a cruise ship christened the “SS Norovirus”. Begin with the little matter of finding a starting left fielder and replacing or re-signing starting pitchers Jake Peavy and Ryan Vogelsong and righty reliever Sergio Romo. $36 million starter Tim Lincecum […]

When last we saw San Francisco Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval playing baseball he had just caught the last out of the 2014 World Series and fallen backwards on the green grass of Kaufman Stadium, arms and legs spread in joy. It was the most indelible image of the Giants seven game wrestling match with […]

No one doubts Giant starter Jake Peavy‘s competitiveness and drive to win. He barks at umpires from atop the pitcher’s mound when he doesn’t get a call, and will yell at himself and others when things aren’t going well. In the 2nd inning of Tuesday’s World Series Game 6, Jake Peavy made two mistakes that […]

It’s one thing to be the starting ace of an MLB team playing in its third World Series in five years. But it is totally another deal to consider that the ace in question turned 25 years old on August 1st and was a member of all three Series teams. And in yesterday’s Game 5 […]

Actually I have a dozen brilliant takeaways from the Kansas City Royals 7-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants to conclude the first round of the 2014 World Series. But space considerations (and not wanting to be responsible for people dozing off and damaging their laptops) forces me to keep things focused and tight. For […]